A one-year pilot program offering free electric shuttle rides in downtown Manhattan Beach has been extended for another 12 months by the City Council.
Council members Tuesday night directed city staff to begin the bid process to extend the Downtowner citywide service, which was set to expire on July 31, and research any grant funding that could help offset city costs.
Though the vote was unanimous, some council members voiced concerns about the program only operating downtown.
“We have to serve all our residents,” Councilwoman Nancy Hersman said. “It’s not just the downtown residents’ problem finding parking to go to the restaurants down there or to go shopping down there. Everybody else wants to go there, too.”
Hersman, who lives in east Manhattan Beach, said her neighbors often feel their interests are sometimes overlooked, adding: “They’re just as much a part of and want to be a part of the downtown and El Porto and the beach as everyone else.”
Councilwoman Amy Howorth said the Downtowner has not served other areas because, as a pilot program, it was designed to gauge residents’ interest in the shuttles before possibly broadening the service.
“It is overwhelmingly a success. People who take it like it. That’s one thing we’ve learned from the pilot,” Howorth explained. “We found out that because so many people want to use it, even more people want to use it, and to do that would be really expensive.”
The City Council approved the electric shuttle pilot in June 2016 and the program launched in late January. The Downtowner contract was approved in response to growing parking and traffic congestion concerns downtown.
The electric vehicle shuttle service operates from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The six electric golf cart-like vehicles pick up passengers from El Porto to First Street and from the pier to Pacific Avenue using a smartphone app similar to Uber or Lyft. The GEM e6 vehicles are stored and charged in an empty area of the Metlox Plaza garage.
Currently, the shuttle service is free, with the cost offset by sponsors who have advertisements displayed inside and outside the six-seat carts.
During the program’s first five months, the Downtowner had more than 28,000 riders, 12,400 rides and a self-reported wait time of about 12 minutes, according to Andy Sywak, the city’s economic vitality manager.
“City staff has generally received very favorable feedback about this service for residents who like it as an alternative way to get around downtown,” Sywak explained.
Citywide program discussed
The Downtowner created a model to bring the program citywide per the city’s request. However, it would no longer utilize the sponsorship model because it would not be feasible in a citywide service, according to Downtowner’s co-founder, Jake Allsop. Instead, the program would cost the city about $840,000.
Expanding to east Manhattan Beach would require different vehicles because the six carts currently used are not allowed on arterial streets, such as Sepulveda and Aviation boulevards. Thus, the Downtowner’s citywide proposal calls for leasing nine Chevy Bolts.
A council majority was not in favor of spending public funds to expand the project.
“I’m not going to vote to put taxpayer money at this,” Councilman Steve Napolitano said. “The proposal of $840,000 is to ditch the cute carts and get Chevy Bolts and that is a ride-hail service with Chevy Bolts, which is nice environmentally, but it’s still a ride service that is being done by Uber and Lyft at the moment.”
Alcohol advertising dismissed
Part of city staff’s recommendation Tuesday night was to allow the Downtowner to display alcohol-related advertisements on the carts, with guidelines outlined by the City Manager’s Office.
Council members, however, were generally not in favor of extending the one-year term if it meant allowing alcohol ads.
Mayor David Lesser said he was against a “moving billboard traveling throughout the city advertising alcohol.”
“It’s not that I’m prudish when it comes to alcohol, but I believe that to the extent they’re utilizing a city facility, to the extent that we have control over the city contract, we should limit alcohol advertisements,” Lesser said.
Allsop said allowing the alcohol advertising would have helped the service get through to the bid process, but that “we will keep doing what we do best and give free rides to the community.”
